Who Do You Trust Most?
by I Took the One Less Travelled
Summary: There has always been a person that the Doctor trusted more than himself, a person that he believed in. And who better to have by his side when he finally has to face the reaper? In which Rose Tyler gets a TARDIS-blue envelope. AU series 6, Eleven/Rose, Amy/Rory, Jack/River.
1. Prologue- A Christmas Carol

"Her voice resonates perfectly with the ice crystals. It calmed the shark. It will calm the sky, too," the Doctor said, his heart breaking for this little boy whose entire life he'd rewritten.

"Could you do it? Could you do this? Think about it, Doctor. One last day with your beloved. Which day would you choose?"

"New Years," the Doctor said softly, before he could stop himself. "I chose New Years, three months before she had ever met me. She thought I was some drunk in the shadows, but I was just grateful to hear her laugh. Time machine, remember?"

"Oh, Doctor," Abigail, so unendingly compassionate, even after he had damn near gotten her killed. "What was her name?" she prompted.

"Rose," the Doctor replied. "Her name was Rose. I promised her the universe, but I ruined her life instead."

"Did she love you back?" Kazran seemed captivated.

"Forever, she promised me. But then I lost her."

"And what about your pretty little redhead? The hologram?"

"Amy's wonderful, but I'm not in love with her. She's married—the Centurion, the Roman bloke, he's her husband. They travel with me. I always warn them, but they never get out. I ruin their lives, all of them. I traumatize them, or erase their memories, or I ruin their lives or I get them killed. I got Rose trapped in another dimension, and I got Adric killed, and I dropped Sarah Jane off in Aberdeen instead of Croydon and let her think that I was dead for thirty years. I've gotten Rory killed already, but he didn't stay that way. And then he killed Amy, but thank God _she_ didn't stay that way."

"You ruin people's lives," Kazran repeated.

"Even Martha, who was smart enough to get out while she still could, I turned her into a soldier, made her walk the earth for me." The Doctor shook his head. "And Rose is the one that I regret the most."

"Why can't you get her back?"

"Because she's trapped. I sealed her away. She's gone, forever."

"You sealed her away?" Abigail asked in disbelief. "You're _the Doctor_. You don't believe in impossible! Get her back!"

And that was what was on his mind, three-hundred years into the future when he was inviting the people that he trusted most to watch him die. Because there had always been someone that he trusted more than himself, and, on top of that, a dark haired pretty boy that he was sure she would be happy to pick up along the way. It took him decades to work out how to remotely activate a decrepit piece of machinery across the void, but he did it. And then his TARDIS—smart, sexy thing that she was—jettisoned a TARDIS-blue envelope marked with the silver number zero on the back flap through the void.

Everything was up to Rose now. Good thing that he had never stopped believing in her.

**This serves as both a little oneshot about Eleven and Rose, and the beginning of my AU series 6 story, starting with The Impossible Astronaut, wherein the Doctor manages to get an envelope to Rose, who brings Jack along for the ride. So call it a prologue, or a prequel or whatever you want, and the next bit with the actual story is being written.**


	2. The Impossible Astronaut I

Jack Harkness was just sitting down for a cup of coffee and his third scheduled daily brood when a white light flashed through his living room, heralding the arrival of a blonde girl in jeans and a leather jacket.

He dropped his mug.

"Rose?" He asked incredulously, darting to her side as she doubled over in pain.

"Jack," Rose Tyler gasped in greeting, one hand reaching up to grab the lapel of his greatcoat, and the other curling around her abdomen. "Sorry, hurts," she managed, starting to fall to the ground. Jack caught her smoothly in his arms.

"Time travel without a capsule?" Jack said sympathetically, eyeing her heavy wristband. Rose grimaced.

"That's got nothing on piercing the void without a capsule," she said. "They had me on meds to help with the effects, before." Jack carried her through the flat to his bedroom and pulled back the sheets carefully.

"You want to get your jacket off?" Jack asked, setting her down against the pillows and roughly pulling her shoes off, having flashbacks to that time, ever so many years ago, when they had gotten drunk at a pub on Califraxa Five, and he had carried her home. Back when life was simpler, when he was so young and such a coward, and Rose was untarnished by the deeply aching loss that echoed through her brown eyes. Back when the Doctor wore a leather jacket, and he had never met a man named Ianto Jones, and he had fancied himself in love with an alien with two hearts and a blonde that he had rescued from a barrage balloon.

He knew better now. He hadn't been in love with the Doctor, or with Rose. He had met and loved and lost many people, through the years. Estelle. John. _Ianto_, God, Ianto. Tosh and Owen. He had loved Rose Tyler, but not been in love with her, and so much more experienced than he had been, he now knew the difference.

Rose gratefully got her black leather jacket off, and Jack took it from her and tucked her in like a child. Explanations could wait until she was well enough to give them.

Several hours later, on the fourth time that he had checked up on her, Rose started to stir. "Rose." He placed his knuckles affectionately on her forehead and placed a cup of tea on the bedside table.

"Jack?"

"Yes, gorgeous?"

"Good," Rose said, eyes slitting open. "I didn't dream the whole thing, then."

"Dream of me often, do you?"

"Every night, Jack." He had meant the comment to be joking, but it was clear that Rose was completely serious. "I've missed you. More than I can say."

"How long has it been?" Jack finally asked.

Rose snorted inelegantly. "Jumping right into the hard questions, aren't you? It's been one hundred and twenty years since the Doctor left me on Bad Wolf Bay the second time. I've been free-lancing for Torchwood since my husband died, before that I was the director."

"Your husband—the other Doctor?" Jack could be quite sharp when he wanted to be.

"Yeah," Rose said, sounding exhausted. "He died. I didn't." Jack leaned forward and wrapped an arm around her, held her close. Rose snuggled into his shoulder like no time had passed between them.

"How'd you get here?"

Rose grabbed for her discarded leather jacket, reached into one of the inside pockets and produced a dark blue envelope. She handed it to Jack. Jack reached inside it. There were two things—a card with a date, a time and a map coordinate, much like an invitation, and a heavy chunk of metal and wire sitting alongside it. Jack flipped over the envelope to discover that it was embossed with silver calligraphy, forming a zero.

"This thing," Rose said, pulling out the chunk of metal, "activated the dimension cannon. This is a vortex manipulator, or very much like one. The dimension cannon bit of it shut down when the Doctor sealed the walls between the dimensions, but when it got too close to this thing, the dimension cannon part just fired up again, and I found myself here."

Jack took the contraption from her hand and flipped it over a couple of times. "Huh," he said. "You've travelled in time, as well."

"What do you mean?"

"Rose, it's 2011."

"No," Rose said weakly.

"There's only one person who would—or _could_ do this, Rose," Jack said. Rose eyed him carefully. She knew exactly what he was talking about. "The only question, is _why_?"

Rose shook her head. "I think, Jack, that the only way to find out is to go to this place on this date. Maybe he'll explain then."

They determined that the date was two weeks from then, and the map coordinates pointed to the middle of nowhere in Utah, God only knew why. And that was how two weeks later found them in an American car that Jack had had in storage somewhere, ripping up the Utah highway at one-hundred and forty klicks an hour.

"Wheee!" Rose shrieked, as Jack skidded the car around a sharp bend. Jack echoed her with a more manly whoop. As he had pointed out, neither of them could die, so why waste time being careful? The GPS (that Jack had lovingly named Karen) announced that they had reached their destination, and there was a car parked on the side of the road, a man sprawled on the hood of it who could only be the Doctor. Jack neatly sailed off the side of the road and skidded to a stop, using the parking brake to secure the stop.

Laughing, Rose tumbled out of the car and nearly toppled over, and the Doctor banged his head on the top of his windshield. "Rose Tyler," he greeted her loudly.

"Doctor," she called back, grinning.

They met halfway, reaching for each other in the same instant. The Doctor lifted her off of her feet and spun her in a circle.

Jack came around the car from the other side, and Rose and the Doctor moved in the same instant to pull him into the tangle of limbs. The Doctor kissed Rose on the forehead, and looped one arm around Jack's head to pull it down enough that he could bestow a kiss onto his crown.

"Rose Tyler," the Doctor said, releasing them both. "Jack Harkness. Of all people."

"Hey, Team TARDIS back together again," Jack enthused. "Just, you know, a couple of new faces and several hundred years later."

The Doctor shook his head. "If anyone can solve what's coming, it's going to be you two."

"What's coming?" Rose asked. The Doctor didn't answer, just looped his arm around her and pulled her in close again. Jack stayed back this time—the last time they had had a reunion, they had been interrupted by an unfortunate trigger-happy Dalek.

"Rose," the Doctor murmured. He breathed in her scent. "Rose Tyler. If this is the first chance to say it—"

"Doctor!"

"I love you," he said.

"Doctor," Rose said. She looked completely wrecked.

"I know. I was a coward, and a moron, and I've regretted it ever since, and I'm sorry. It _did_ need saying, and I'm sorry that I didn't."

"I know," she said softly, stepping closer to him. "I know why you didn't say it. Thank you." Then she slapped him.

"Hey!" he said, wincing.

"That's for leaving me in a parallel dimension, you jerk!"

"Were you happy?"

She glared mutinously, but she clearly wasn't that angry. "Until he died of old age and I stayed the same, yes. But you meant well. Thank you." She kissed him on the smarting cheek.

"But—but—_how_?" he demanded, staring incredulously.

"Bad Wolf, I'd assume. I'm like Jack, or similar to him. From the way that he's described dying, I think that's different. It's like I hear a song, like the humming that the TARDIS makes, and there's always gold light around whatever my wound is."

"Like regeneration," the Doctor said, astonished. "It's like you're going through a partial regeneration every time you suffer a life ending injury."

Jack laughed. "Look at us, the immortal, regenerating Team TARDIS!"

Rose threw her head back and laughed.

Their reunion was interrupted by a yellow school bus pulling over on the other side of the road, and someone clearly got out. That person, a woman, called a thank you into the bus, and the bus driver called something in reply and pulled away.

"This is it, yeah? The right place?" a redheaded woman with a Scottish accent circled around the dust left by the bus.

"Nowhere, middle of? Yeah, this it," the man accompanying her said. The Doctor grinned widely.

"Howdy," he called, lacing his hand with Rose and pulling her forward a few steps. Jack stood slightly behind them.

"Doctor!" the woman called, moving forward rapidly.

"Ha, ha! It's the Ponds!"

"Oh my God, it's the Ponds," Jack said from behind them.

"Hey!" the woman said.

"Hello, Pond. Come here." She stepped into his arms, and they parted laughing.

"So, someone's been a busy boy then, eh?"

"Did you see me?" the Doctor asked proudly.

"Of course," she said. The Doctor still hadn't let go of Rose's hand, but continued to gesture wildly with their hands laced.

"Stalker."

"Flirt," the woman accused.

"Husband," the man interjected. "Um, _Amy_."

"Rory the Roman! Ooo, come here," the Doctor said, tackling Rory into a hug too. Rose muttered something uncharitable under her breath.

"Yeah, great to see you too, Doctor, but—" he pushed the Doctor away. "Amy."

Amy caught on to whatever Rory was trying to tell her. "Oh my God, Jack!"

"What?" the Doctor demanded. "How do you know each other? How?"

Amy coughed. Rory avoided his gaze. Jack cleared his throat. "Doctor, Rose, did I ever tell you about that time that I got caught smuggling on Calliope Minor and was sentenced to execution?"

"And you remember where you sent us for our honeymoon, after we got done with the grouchy old guy who was going to let us all plummet to our deaths?" Amy added.

"And I said that I drank five hypervodkas and woke up in bed with my executioners?" Jack continued.

"Oh, God," the Doctor muttered in dawning horror. "Executioners! Amy! Rory! What did you do?"

Rose had put the pieces together, and started laughing. "So, you mean, that before you ever met _us_," she said, gesturing to herself and the Doctor, "you managed to sleep with _his_ future companions, who were mistaken for executioners on their honeymoon?"

"Oh my God," the Doctor recited in horror. "Oh my God, I thought that you two had better taste than that! You slept with _him_? I'll never look at you the same way again."

Jack pouted. Rory cleared his throat. "Hey, nice hat," he said, in a not-so-subtle bid to change the subject.

"I wear a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool," the Doctor babbled distractedly. As if on cue, gunfire sounded behind them, and the Stetson tumbled forward off his head. They all turned around.

"Hello, sweetie."

Then the woman, with curly blonde hair, turned the gun on Jack, and casually shot him in the forehead. Jack went down like a bag of bricks, Amy shrieked River's name in horror, and Rory immediately followed Jack to the ground to try and see if he could be revived.

"Rory, leave him," the Doctor said mildly. "Doctor Song. Why?"

"Because it amuses me," River said, blowing the smoke off the barrel of her gun and reholstering it. "Rory, really, leave him, he'll be fine." Her words were punctuated by Jack gasping frantically.

"Hello_, Rory_," Jack said, clutching onto Rory's arms.

"_Stop it_," the Doctor snapped.

"I'm just saying hello!" Jack protested. The Doctor rolled his eyes. Rose snickered. Amy just looked very, very confused. Jack vaulted to his feet. "You killed me," he accused mildly, with the sort of tone that one would use to accuse someone of nicking a piece of gum.

"Hello, Darling," River said. "Is this the first?"

"First what?"

"First time that you've met me," River said.

Jack turned to the Doctor in confusion. "Do I know her? Have I just had so much to drink that I have no memory of it?"

"No," the Doctor said. "River's a time traveller, her timeline runs sort of backwards to mine. And to yours, I assume. We keep meeting in the wrong order."

"Sounds fun," Jack said, winking at River.

"Oh, it is," River assured him throatily. Then she turned back to the Doctor. "This is interesting. What are you up to?"

"You'll just have to wait and see."

"She doesn't know me yet?" River gestured to Rose, and the Doctor shook his head.

"I don't believe so. Jack Harkness, Rose Tyler, meet Doctor River Song. It's a long story, I only know bits and pieces of it."

River laughed. "Rose Tyler, we are going to be the absolute best of friends."

The Doctor piled Amy, Rory and River into his car, and told Jack and Rose to follow him and he drove them to some diner in the middle of nowhere, Utah. The Doctor, Jack, River and Rose settled at the booth while Amy and Rory went to get milkshakes.

"Right then, where are we? Have we done Easter Island yet?" River said in a businesslike manner, opening her diary.

"Er, yes! I've got Easter Island," the Doctor finally agreed, flipping through his own. River laughed.

"They worshipped you there. Have you seen the statues?"

"Jim the fish," the Doctor said.

"Oh! Jim the fish. How is he?"

"Still building his dam," the Doctor muttered. He stretched his arm and placed it around Rose carefully, and Rose happily snuggled into his embrace.

"Sorry, what are you two doing?" Rory asked, sliding into the booth next to Rose. Amy sat down across from him, on the other side of Jack, and they carefully distributed milkshakes.

"They're both time travellers, so they never meet in the right order. They're syncing their diaries. So, what's happening, then? Because you've been up to something." Amy said. She smirked mischievously at the Doctor.

Rose laughed. "I can see why you picked her up, Doctor. I like her. She reminds me a bit of—"

Rose, Jack, River and the Doctor winced, and the Doctor kissed Rose's temple. River offered her hand from across the table, and the Doctor squeezed it gratefully.

"Oh! I saw her, in Cardiff!" Jack said enthusiastically. "Even talked to her!"

"Jack! You _know_ that you can't do that!" The Doctor reprimanded. "If she remembers me, even for a second, she'll burn up. She'll die, and I won't be there to fix it in time! I swore to Wilf that I'd keep her safe."

"I know, I know," Jack assured him. "She didn't know me. Just said that I must have one of those faces. She's married now, did you know? And she won the lottery. Don't suppose that you might've had anything to do with that?"

The Doctor smiled sadly. "Yes, I heard. Donna Temple-Noble. Just wanted to make sure that my sister was well-taken care of. For the rest of her days," he added. River squeezed his hand again before releasing it.

"I'm sorry, who are you talking about?" Amy asked.

The Doctor closed his eyes. "The most important woman in all of creation," he said, like a mantra.

"And what does it have to do with what you've been up to?"

"Nothing," the Doctor said. "You reminded Rose of her, that's all. I've been running, faster than I've ever run. And I've been running my whole life. Now, it's time for me to stop. And tonight, I'm going to need you all with me. Except you, Rose, and Jack."

"Why not!" Rose demanded. "Never gonna leave you—promised you forever, remember?"

"Rose Tyler." He smiled. "Of course you won't. But I have something to do, something that can't be interfered with, and you won't like it. Jeopardy Friendly as you are, you won't be able to resist screwing up my plans. And they're such nice plans, too! Well, not nice, but you know what I mean. Amy, Rory, River, I'm going to need you beside me."

"Okay. We're here. What's up?" Amy obviously decided to suspend confusion. She had no idea who this girl was, or why the Doctor kept cuddling with her, but she figured that she could ask later.

"A picnic. And then a trip. Somewhere different, somewhere brand new."

"Where?"

"Space, 1969. Now, you three, go and wait out in the car for a minute, I need to talk to Rose and Jack."

He waited until he was sure that Amy, Rory and River had left the diner before he turned to Rose and Jack. "I'm going to my death," the Doctor said. He reached out and clamped a hand over Rose's mouth. "Except I'm not! I'm not dying, don't worry. I've found a way around it. But what's going to happen is a fixed point, it has to go that way. _They_ have got to believe that I'm dead."

"How?" Jack asked.

"Look into my eyes."

"_What_?"

"Shhh. It's called the Teselecta, it's a time travelling robot that can take the physical form of anyone that it wants. Basically, it skips through time to find people that it thinks weren't appropriately punished for their crimes, and takes them out of their timestreams just before they're supposed to die and tortures them horribly for it. It's all very..."

"Spock?" Jack suggested dryly, glancing sideways at Rose.

"Shut up," Rose muttered. "So, you've finally figured out who Spock is, huh?"

"Can't very well live through the twentieth century and not know who Spock is," Jack said.

"Okay, enough about Spock! Honestly, you people. The Doctor needs to die at 5:02 pm on Lake Silencio today—at least, I have to appear to die. I won't actually be dead. River will know that, and she will know what to do, but Amy and Rory have got to believe that I'm dead. That means that you two will have to act like you think that I've just died."

"Okay," Rose agreed dubiously.

"_But_. There's a younger version of me still coming, he needs to take the lot of you to 1969, there's something that you need to do there. And he cannot know that he just died, or that he faked his death. River will handle Amy and Rory, but you two can't tell him that you've seen me."

"How much younger?" Rose asked, slightly fearfully.

The Doctor just shook his head. "Not _that much _younger, Rose. Pity, that was great hair."

"Yeah, it was great hair," Rose agreed mournfully.


	3. The Impossible Astronaut II

Jack and Rose waited for about ten minutes before the Doctor came into the diner. He was holding a blue envelope in his hand, staring at it in confusion. Rose smirked. The other Doctor, the older one, would have been expecting her. This one? Well, she was looking forward to the look on his face.

"Doctor?" She stood carefully, and the Doctor stopped dead to stare at her.

"No," he muttered.

"Excuse me?" Rose asked.

"No, I can't be seeing this again." He reached forward, extended a finger and poked her in the shoulder. "Oooo, solid, worse than usual," he added. "Dreaming, maybe?"

"Ahem," Jack joined Rose standing in front of him. "Doctor."

"We-ell, less likely to hallucinate _that_," the Doctor muttered to himself. Jack and Rose exchanged amused looks.

"Doctor," Rose said. "You're not hallucinating."

"How'd you get here?" the Doctor asked blankly, clearly not convinced. Clearly sure that if he believed that she was real and gave her the hug that he was dying to give her, she would dissolve into nothing in his arms.

Rose waved the heavy black bracelet on her wrist in his direction. "Dimension cannon," she explained. "This—" she produced the TARDIS-blue envelope—"came flying through the void, popped out in Bad Wolf Bay, clearly addressed to me. And I have quite the reputation at Torchwood, they wouldn't touch it without my permission. As soon as I touched this thing," she opened the envelope and pulled out the metal-and-wire contraption, handing it to him carefully, "the cannon activated and I found myself in Jack's living room."

"That's genius," the Time Lord breathed, eyeing the metal capsule. "Didn't have to pierce the void itself, just make a connection with the technology that you already had, and repaired the holes in the universe that it left behind you—" he seemed to realize that he was wasting time babbling when Rose Tyler was here before him, and stopped dead, shoved the metal bit and the envelope into Jack's waiting hands, and surged forward to wrap her in a hug.

"Rose," he breathed desperately into her hair.

"Doctor," she said, burying her face in the junction where his neck met his shoulder and melting into the hug.

"Oh, _Rose_," he said again. When people began staring and it didn't appear that they were planning on separating anytime soon, Jack carefully moved forward and pried them apart.

"People are staring, Doctor," Jack sung. "Come on, let's sit down."

Jack slid into one side of the booth, and Rose and the Doctor took the other. "What's going on?" The Doctor said.

"We've been invited here," Rose said. "Well, except for Jack, he's just sort of a tagalong."

"Yes, but what for?"

Rose shrugged helplessly. "I've no idea. I'm sure that there must be other people, too, maybe they'll know. Maybe whoever sent the invitations will dispense with the cloak and dagger bit and show up to tell us why he wants us here."

Not likely. But the Doctor couldn't know that.

"Rose," the Doctor began carefully. "What happened to the other me? Did he come with you? Did you get ripped away from him? Because if you want to go back, I can—" he was cut off by Rose smacking him hard on the arm.

"Doctor! Don't be ridiculous. I've got nothing to go back to. John—the other you, I mean—he died, Doctor. He aged and died... and I didn't."

"How?" The Doctor gaped at her.

"Bad Wolf. I'm like Jack, sort of. Or, maybe the best way to describe it would be a hybrid between Jack and you. I don't die, I heal. There's this song, and gold light, exactly like when you regenerate, but my whole body doesn't change or anything, I just heal."

"Rose... How long?"

"It's been one-hundred and twenty years since you left me on Bad Wolf Bay the second time," Rose said.

"I'm sorry."

Rose shook her head. "I—I married him. Lived with him, had my fairytale with him, Doctor. I don't regret it. And I know why you didn't say it. I was mad, at first, but now all that I can say is thank you."

They seemed quite happy to ignore Jack entirely, but Jack had suffered through far too much UST when he had been travelling with them to get in the way when they were finally on the verge of working out this mess. The Doctor leaned forward and rested his forehead on hers.

"It's been far too long, and this sentence needs saying. Rose Tyler... I love you. Always. Forever."

Rose blinked back sudden tears, literal _years_ of daydreams of him saying those exact words to her, and now she had heard it twice from him, on the same day. "Quite right, too," Rose managed through the lump in her throat.

The Doctor chuckled.

"I love you too, Doctor," Rose said.

"How long are you going to stay with me?" He asked her. And even though he had to know the answer now, he still awaited her response with baited breath.

"Forever," Rose replied.

Then their lips connected in what seemed to be a shower of literal sparks. Jack could practically hear the cheesy romantic music playing in the background. And it had only taken two new faces, marriage, two different incidents wherein one of them was trapped in another dimension and a whole multitude of alien uprisings and saved planets to get them to the point that everyone had known they were going towards all along.

Hell, even a _Dalek_ had figured it out—Jack had been told all about the incident in Van Statten's basement, and he, unlike the oblivious Rose and the Doctor, had quickly seen (and agreed with) what the Dalek had—namely that the Doctor was in love with Rose, and that she very clearly felt the same.

The Doctor set his envelope on the table and slid out of the booth with a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm, babbling about bendy straws that made drinks fizzier and bolted out the back door of the diner.

"Some things never change, Rosie," Jack said.

"Clearly not," Rose agreed, laughing indulgently at the Doctor's retreating form.

The front door of the diner opened with a ringing bell, admitting the three people from earlier. Amy looked utterly dumbstruck, as if some major belief in her world had just been challenged, and Rory wasn't much better. River was less wrecked, but clearly her mind was working in overdrive, trying to figure out the Doctor's motivations, his plans, trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle that she only had half of.

"You got 3, I was 2, Mister Delaware was 4," River was saying as she entered, brandishing the envelope in one hand.

"So?"

"So, where's 1? Is it Rose? That doesn't quite fit, somehow. He trusts Rose more than anyone that I know, but..."

"And who _is_ Rose, anyway?" Rory asked.

"The woman that he loves," River said absently.

"What, you think he invited someone else?"

"Well, he must have. He planned all of this, to the last detail," she said.

"What about Jack?" Rory blushed at the talk of Jack, but persevered with his point.

"Thing is, Rory, I don't think that Jack got one at all. He wouldn't have needed to send Jack one, he expected him to tag along with Rose. Like he didn't send you two separate letters, you just got one together. It's rather well-known—or will be, anyway—that Jack Harkness will follow Rose Tyler anywhere."

"Hang on. I thought that you said that the _Doctor_ was in love with Rose? And also, if Jack is with Rose—very Titanic, by the way, it works—then why did he sleep with _us_?"

River burst out laughing. "Jack slept with you over a hundred years ago, according to his own linear timeline," she explained. "It happened less than three months ago for you, but for him, it happened before he ever even met the Doctor, which was a long time ago. And Jack and Rose aren't together romantically, they're—it's very difficult to explain. I wouldn't say that they're like brother and sister, because there's far too much flirting in that relationship for me to ever say that they're like siblings. Pack. They're Pack. She's the Wolf, and he's a part of her Pack."

"I'm so confused," Rory muttered. "How could it possibly have been over a hundred years ago for him? He hasn't aged a day! Does this have anything to do with the fact that you killed him earlier?"

"He's immortal, Rory. He cannot die, he's a fixed point in time. But, beyond Jack, what was the Doctor planning?"

"Will you two shut up? It doesn't matter," Amy said. She leaned one hand against the back of a booth, staring into the distance.

"He was up to something," River said.

"He's dead," Amy murmured, in the same empty tone.

"Space, 1969. What did he mean?"

"You're still talking, but it doesn't matter," Amy continued.

"Hey, it mattered to him," Rory assured her.

"So it matters to us," River said, finality clear in her tone. She finally spotted Jack and Rose and started towards them, placing one hand on Amy's back to herd her along and trusting that Rory would follow his wife.

"He's dead," Amy repeated.

"But he still needs us. I know. Amy, I know. But right now we have to focus."

"Look," Rory said. There were two envelopes on Jack and Rose's table. Rose picked hers up and angled it so that River could see the number embossed onto it.

"_Zero_, of course," River breathed. "He trusts her more than anyone, ever, in the entire mutliverse, anyone in reality. But who does he trust most in the universe? The Doctor knew he was going to his death, so he sent out messages. When you know it's the end, who do you call?"

"Er, your friends. People you trust."

"Number 1. Who did The Doctor trust the most?"

Then the back door swung open, admitting the Doctor himself, carrying three bendy straws.

"This is cold. Even by your standards, this is cold," River said dully, staring at him in astonishment. She had thought that he cared more for Amy especially, than to make her watch that.

"Or hello, as people used to say," the Doctor said cagily.

"Doctor?" Amy asked.

"I just popped out to get my special straw. It adds more fizz," the Doctor said. "Here, Rose!" Rolling her eyes, Rose slid out of the booth and took the three straws from him before setting them gently on the table.

"You're okay. How can you be okay?" Amy asked numbly. She stepped forward into his arms, clinging to him soundly.

"Hey, of course I'm okay. I'm always okay. I'm the King of Okay. Oh, that's a rubbish title. Forget that title. Rory the Roman! That's a good title. Hello, Rory." He gave Rory a hug, which Rory barely returned before the Doctor pulled away again. "And Doctor River Song. Oh, you bad, bad girl. What trouble have you got for me this time? Ooo, we should stop that now, I've got a—" He gestured at Rose. River smirked.

"She doesn't mind, Doctor."

"I don't understand," Amy muttered.

"He's saying that he shouldn't flirt with me anymore, because she's here. Speaking of, Doctor, don't you think that you should introduce us your ladylove?" River asked. She glared at Amy and Rory when they went to say that they'd sort of already met, though the future version of the Doctor hadn't exactly bothered with introductions.

"Right, of course! Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, meet Amy and Rory Pond and Doctor River Song."

Jack smirked, a look of unholy glee lighting up his face. River _really_ wanted to kiss him, right then, but resisted the urge. She knew exactly what he was about to reveal. "Already met the Ponds, Doctor. Remember that story that I always used to tell, about the time that I got sentenced to death and woke up with both of my executioners?"

Predictably, this version of the Doctor was as horrified as the older one had been. "_Executioners_? Amy! Rory!"

River took this opportunity to change the subject and vent some of her frustration with his older self, since he wasn't exactly around to slap. It would all make sense to him, one day. She slapped him hard enough to send his head snapping to the side.

"Okay. I'm assuming that's for something I haven't done yet," the Doctor said, making several different faces.

"Yes, it is," River snapped.

"Good. Looking forward to it." She barely hid her wince.

"I don't understand. How can you be here?" Rory asked. Come on, Rory! Use your brain! Sometimes, her father wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the bunch. Rory stepped forward and poked the Doctor in the chest.

"I was invited. Date, map reference. Same as you lot, I assume, otherwise it's a hell of a coincidence," the Doctor said. Amy turned to her, such trust in her eyes, even now, unaware of who she was.

"River, what's going on?" Amy asked.

"Amy, ask him what age he is," River instructed, having long since figured it out.

"That's a bit personal," the Doctor said mildly.

"Tell her. Tell her what age you are," River snapped, at the end of her rope. At least Jack was there for her to shoot. If she hadn't gone and used up her ammo uselessly firing at that astronaut. She had no idea what was going on—bits and pieces that weren't coming together, flashes that weren't fitting. Something here was very much not right, and she didn't like it one bit.

"Nine hundred and nine," the Doctor said promptly.

"Ridiculous old man, lying about your age," Rose said, grinning through her teeth.

"Yeah, but you said you were—" she started to protest, not giving the Doctor a chance to respond to Rose—when they got started, God help anyone that tried to pry them apart. "So where does that leave us, huh? Jim the fish? Have we done Jim the fish yet?" she interrupted herself.

"Who's Jim the fish?" Agghh!

"I don't understand," Amy said blankly.

"Yeah, you do," Rory corrected, trying to comfort her.

"I don't! What are we all doing here?"

"We've been recruited. Something to do with space 1969, and a man called Canton Everett Delaware the third," River said, gathering her wits so as to reply calmly.

"Recruited by who?"

" Someone who trusts you more than anybody else in the universe. But, of course, not the multiverse," she added, gesturing to Rose. "But that's to be expected."

"And who's that?"

"Spoilers," she managed, forcing herself to utter a line that was usually fun, taunting and flirtatious, even if today it just left a sour taste in her mouth.

They got to the TARDIS, and Rose burst through the doors and went straight for the console, seemingly without even noticing that the interior had changed since the last time that she had seen it. She dropped to her knees next to it, and the TARDIS hummed in greeting under her palms.

Then she turned around and walloped the Doctor with a smack that rivaled River's earlier.

"Hey! What _is_ it with you people today?" The Doctor cried, wounded.

"Old girl says that you still use that blasted mallet on her," Rose reprimanded. "I could hit you with _that_ instead, if you like?" She pulled said mallet off of its hook and brandished it at him. The Doctor backed away.

"I wouldn't _have to_, if she actually took me where I wanted to go!"

"She takes you where you _need_ to go," Rose said primly. River resisted the urge to burst out laughing. The only person in the world that could keep that man in line.

"1969, that's an easy one! Funny, how some years are easy. Now, 1482, full of glitches. Now then, Canton Everett Delaware the third. That was his name, yeah? How many of those can there be? Well, three, I suppose. Rose, do you know why they're all acting weird?"

"I don't know how they act normally, Doctor," Rose said, amused. "I just met them, remember?" River followed Amy down to underneath the console, to find her mother, so small and distraught, but strong, sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"Explain it again," Amy said desperately.

"The Doctor we saw on the beach is a future version, two hundred years older than the one up there," River repeated herself, repeated with Amy already knew.

"But all that's still going to happen. He's still going to die," Amy said.

"We're all going to do that, Amy." Except, maybe Jack. But—'Everything has its time, and everything dies.' The Bad Wolf had said that, right before she made Jack immortal.

"Everything has its time, Amy, and everything dies," River quoted, crouching next to her mother and placing a hand on her knee. "A very wise, strong, powerful being once said that."

"The Doctor?"

River smiled softly. "No. Rose." River snorted. "Right before she pushed the Time Vortex right through the brain of the Dalek Emperor, and turned his entire fleet to dust. She reached through time, erased him from existence. Then she gave Jack life. And _that_ is why Jack will follow her anywhere."

"I thought you weren't allowed to tell us this stuff?" Amy asked, confused.

"That's already happened, Amy," River explained. "I wasn't there. It was just the Doctor, two faces ago, Jack and Rose herself. He hadn't met me yet. I only know about it because Rose told me. But we're all going to die.

"We're not all going to arrange our own wake and invite ourselves," Rory objected as he joined them. "So, the Doctor, in the future, knowing he's going to die, recruits his younger self and all of us to, to what, exactly? Avenge him?"

"Uh huh. Avenging's not his style. And if we succeeded in killing whatever it is that killed him before it happened, then it didn't happen, and he didn't invite us here. Paradox. This is a closed loop, a stable circular paradox. The older version of him invited us here because he remembered us being here, and he remembered his younger self being here. Rose and Jack, I'm not entirely sure about—something's changed, I'm sure, because his older self didn't seem to remember them. But the timelines feel okay, which means that the parts that matter will still happen as they need to."

"Save him," Amy suggested.

"Yeah, that's not really his style either," Rory muttered.

"We have to tell him," Amy said insistently. River held back her groan._ Why_ did he have to go and die and leave her to deal with all of the dirty work?

"We've told him all we can. We can't even tell him we've seen his future self. He's interacted with his own past. It could rip a hole in the universe," River said patiently.

"Yes, but he's done it before," Amy said.

"And in fairness, the universe did blow up," Rory pointed out.

"But he'd want to know," Amy protested. River cursed whatever force out there had made Amy Pond so bloody stubborn.

"Would he? Would anyone?" She returned.

"I'm being extremely clever up here, and there's no one but Rose and Jack to stand around looking impressed! What's the point in having you all?" The Doctor called from above.

"Couldn't you just slap him sometimes?" River said exasperatedly.

"River, we can't just let him die. We have to stop it. How can you be okay with this?" Amy asked insistently.

"The Doctor's death doesn't frighten me. Nor does my own. There's a far worse day coming for me," River said ominously. They all filed up the stairs, to find the Doctor circling the console, Rose's hand clutched in his own and Jack leaning against one of the railings with casual negligence.

"Time isn't a straight line. It's all bumpy wumpy. There's loads of boring stuff like Sundays and Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons. But now and then there are Saturdays. Big temporal tipping points when anything's possible. The TARDIS can't resist them, like a moth to a flame. She loves a party, so I give her 1969 and NASA, because that's space in the sixties, and Canton Everett Delaware the third, and this is where she's pointing," the Doctor said, spinning the scanner around.

"Washington D.C., April the eighth, 1969. So why haven't we landed?" Amy asked.

"Because that's not where we're going," the Doctor snapped.

"Oh. Where are we going?"

"Home. Well, you two are. Off you pop and make babies. And you, Doctor Song, back to prison. And me? I'm late for a biplane lesson in 1911. Jack and Rose can come with, I'm sure they'll enjoy it! Just like old times! Or it could be knitting. Knitting or biplanes. One or the other. What? A mysterious summons. You think I'm just going to _go_? Who sent those messages? I know you know. I can see it in your faces. Don't play games with me. Don't ever, ever think you're capable of that," he said, flopping casually into a chair to the side.

"You're going to have to trust us this time," River said tightly. Of course, Jack and Rose didn't seem all that inclined to talk him into cooperating, and there went the biggest ace up her sleeve.

"Trust you? Sure. But, first of all, Doctor Song, just one thing. Who are you? You're someone from my future. Getting that. But who? Okay. Why are you in prison? Who did you kill, hmm? Now, I love a bad girl, me, but trust you? Seriously." She sighed. Of course not. It could never work out when she needed it to. He hadn't known her for long enough.

"Trust me," Amy said suddenly.

"Okay," the Doctor agreed, dragging Rose over to stand level with Amy.

"You have to do this, and you can't ask why," Amy said tearfully.

"Are you being threatened? Is someone making you say that?" the Doctor asked, clearly honestly curious.

"No."

"You're lying," the Doctor returned.

"I'm not lying," Amy said insistently.

"Swear to me. Swear to me on something that matters," the Doctor finally said.

"Fish fingers and custard," Amy said shakily.

"My life in your hands, Amelia Pond," the Doctor murmured. Amy flinched and turned away, but the Doctor took no notice.

"Thank you," River said quietly, glancing at Rose and giving her a 'thanks so much for helping' look. Of course, Rose didn't know her at all, had even _less_ reason for trusting her than the Doctor did. But she was _so used_ to Rose having her back.

"So! Canton Everett Delaware the third. Who's he?" The Doctor said, turning to the console.

"Ex FBI. Got kicked out," River read the files that the TARDIS had produced.

"Why?"

"Authority problems," Jack said unexpectedly. "At least that's what's on the official file. He wants to marry a black man, in the year 1969. How do you think they'll react? Canton Everett Delaware the third and I, we've met. In '67, too, when I was working for Torchwood One."

"He'll know you, then?"

"He'll know me," Jack confirmed.

"Six weeks after he left the Bureau, the President contacted him for a private meeting," River read from the scanner.

"Yeah, 1969. Who's President?"

"Richard Milhous Nixon. Vietnam, Watergate. There's some good stuff, too," River recited.

"Not enough," the Doctor muttered.

"Hippie," River accused mildly.

"Archaeologist," the Doctor returned. "Okay, since I don't know what I'm getting into this time, for once I'm being discreet. I'm putting the engines on silent," the Doctor said. Rose snorted at the idea that the Doctor could be discreet, and the Doctor flipped a lever that made the TARDIS wail in protest. Rose clutched the console with one hand and her head with the other, and River quickly circled the console to turn off the noise.

"Did you do something?" The Doctor asked her suspiciously.

"No, just watching," River answered.

"Putting the outer shield on invisible. I haven't done this in a while. Big drain on the power," the Doctor narrated.

"You can turn the Tardis invisible?" Rory asked.

"Ha!" The Doctor flipped a switch and turned on the back lighting.

"Very nearly," River said dryly, pressing a couple of buttons.

"Er, did you touch something?"

"Just admiring your skills," River returned, rolling her eyes.

"Good. You might learn something." She rolled her eyes again. "Okay. Now I can't check the scanner. It doesn't work when we're cloaked. Just give us a mo. Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa. You lot, wait a moment. We're in the middle of the most powerful city in the most powerful country on Earth. Let's take it slow," the Doctor said, not seeming to notice that he had picked up Rose's hand again on his way out the door.

"Hello? Who is this? This is President Nixon. Who's calling? Is this you again?"

"Mister President?"

"A child," Canton said.

"This is the President, yes," the recording continued.

"I'm scared, Mister President. I'm scared of the spaceman."

"A little girl?" Canton asked.

"Boy," Nixon said.

"How can you be sure?"

"What spaceman? Where are you phoning from? Where are you right now? Who are you?" Nixon on the recording demanded. The Doctor quietly produced a notebook to begin writing things down.

"Jefferson Adams Hamilton."

"Jefferson, listen to me," Nixon began. Then the line went dead.

"Surely this is something the Bureau could handle, sir," Canton said roughly, more than happy to leave his fractured history with law enforcement behind.

"These calls happen wherever I am. How do I know the Bureau isn't involved? I can't trust anyone," Nixon said, turning around and stopping dead. Rose backed away, but the Doctor simply waved at them to continue their conversation as Canton stood up to stare at them.

"Oh. Hello. Bad moment. Oh look, this is the Oval Office. We were looking for the er, oblong room, right Rose? We'll just be off, then, shall we?" the Doctor said, turning to his companion. He tried to wander away, and walked smack into the cloaked TARDIS and crumpled to the floor. Rose couldn't resist laughing at him as Canton leapt on top of him and wrestled him to the ground.

"Don't worry! It always does that when its cloaked!" The Doctor said. "Ah, no. Stop that," he instructed Canton quietly. The Secret Service ran into the room and began assisting Canton in smushing the Doctor's face into the rug, but ignored Rose entirely. She was a little bit miffed at how easily they dismissed her as a threat.

"Lockdown! Lockdown!" One of the guys called.

"Stop that! Argh! Oh!" The Doctor yelled. "River, have you got my scanner working yet?" he called. "No, you don't!" he added into thin air.

"Get the President out of here. Sir, you have to go with them, now," the Secret Service guy ordered.

"River, make her blue again!" The TARDIS shimmered into view, in all of her Police Box glory.

"What the hell is that?" the president demanded. The Doctor used the opportunity presented by their distraction to slip out of their grasp and pull Rose with him around the president's desk and seat himself with his feet up. Rolling her eyes, Rose stood behind him.

"Mister President, that child just told you everything you need to know, but you weren't listening. Never mind, though, because the answer's yes. I'll take the case. Fellows, the guns, really? I just walked into the highest security office in the United States and parked a big blue box on the rug. Do you think you can just shoot me?

"They're Americans!" River shouted, exiting the TARDIS with her own gun pointed, sending everyone into a gun cocking party.

"Don't shoot. Definitely no shooting," the Doctor babbled.

"Nobody shoot us either. Very much not in need of getting shot. Look, we've got our hands up," Rory said.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Sir, you need to stay back. _Jack_?" Canton asked incredulously.

Jack smirked and swaggered forward. "_Stop it_," the Doctor said. "You'll get shot, _again_, and then where will we be?"

"I'll have been dead. Again. Oh well," Jack said airily.

"But who are they and what is that box?" Nixon demanded.

"Well," Canton began. "_That's_ Captain Jack Harkness, he works for Torchwood."

"Torchwood doesn't exist, sir," the Secret Service guy protested.

Nixon, Canton, Jack and Rose rolled their eyes in unison. "Director Rose Tyler, Torchwood High Command," Rose snapped, circling the desk and flashing her Torchwood ID at him. "And if it's a myth, why is it so _classified_?"

"Miss, don't move any closer—"

"Let them talk," the president snapped. Canton nodded in agreement. "If they're from Torchwood, let them talk. But _what_ is that box?"

"It's a police box. Can't you read? I'm your new undercover agent on loan from... Can't believe I'm saying this, but Torchwood. Code name the Doctor. These are my top operatives, the Legs, the Nose, and Mrs Robinson. And that's Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness, apparently you already know them," the Doctor said sulkily.

River and Rose exchanged glances. "Doctor River Song," River introduced herself. "And that's Amelia Pond and Rory Williams. And he really is the Doctor, at least that's what everyone calls him. Just ignore him when he's being ridiculous, though."

"Who are you?" Nixon asked.

"Nah, boring question. Who's phoning you? That's interesting. Because Canton Three is right. That was definitely a girl's voice, which means there's only one place in America she can be phoning from."

"Where?" Canton asked interestedly. He obviously knew firsthand exactly what Jack was capable of, and was eager to see him at work with some of his associates.

"Do not engage with the intruder, Mister Delaware."

"You heard everything I heard. It's simple enough. Give me five minutes, I'll explain. On the other hand, lay a finger on me or my friends, and you'll never, ever know."

"How did you get it in here? I mean, you didn't carry it in," Canton observed, attention going back to the TARDIS.

"Clever, eh?"

"Love it," Canton admitted freely.

"Do not compliment the intruder." Everyone ignored the secret service guy.

"Five minutes?" Canton confirmed.

"Five," the Doctor said.

"Mister President, that man is a clear and present danger to—" the secret service guy started.

"Mister President, that man walked in here with a big blue box and five of his friends, and that's the man he walked past. One of them's worth listening to. I say we give him five minutes. See if he delivers," Canton interrupted. "Besides, Jack Harkness might seem like a blowhard, but he's very good."

"Thank you," Jack purred.

"Thanks, Canton," the Doctor rode over Jack's tone loudly.

"If he doesn't, I'll shoot him myself," Canton added.

"Not so thanks," the Doctor said, wounded.

"Sir, I cannot recommend—"

"Shut up, Peterson! All right, five minutes," Nixon agreed.

"I'm going to need a SWAT team, ready to mobilise. Street level maps covering all of Florida. A pot of coffee, twelve Jammie Dodgers and a fez," the Doctor declared.

Rose arched a brow at him, his suit, his bowtie, and his hair, and critically said, "No fez. Get the Jammie Dodgers, though, or else he'll be pouty for _days_, and I'll have to deal with him."

"Get him his maps," Canton ordered gruffly.

"Why Florida?" Canton asked later, with maps strewn across the oval office.

"There's where NASA is. She mentioned a spaceman. NASA's where the spacemen live. Also, there's another lead I'm following," the Doctor said offhandedly.

"What is it?" Rose asked, leaning in close over his shoulder.

"You'll see," he said, grinning infectiously at her. "You and I, we'll do this.

"Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake, Hope and Glory?" Rose said.

"The stuff of legend," the Doctor added. "Plus Jack."

"Jack's always good," Rose said, chuckling slightly. "God, it feels like no time has passed, almost. Like it was only yesterday when we landed at my mum's and had to investigate those damned ghost shifts."

"Apparently I died yesterday," the Doctor said, laughing.

"What happened?"

"I died," he said, in a supremely unhelpful tone of voice. Rose rolled her eyes. "Radiation. It was me or Wilf."

"Donna's granddad?"

"Yeah." He looked up at her. Canton shifted uncomfortably—clearly, neither of them remembered his presence. "I went to see you, you know. When I was dying. I crossed my own timeline, just to see you. The sound of your laugh... nearly broke me."

"I remember," Rose said, reaching up to swipe a tear from her cheek. "You told me that I was going to have a great year."

"Same man, you know. Same man who can never seem to stop loving you."

"New, new, new Doctor?" Rose offered.

"Yeah."

They were interrupted by Amy's voice raising slightly, drawing everyone's attention to her.

"Yeah. No, I'm fine. I'm just feeling a little sick. Excuse me, is there a toilet or something?" Amy said, turning from Rory's worried gaze.

"Sorry, ma'am, while this procedure's ongoing, you must remain within the Oval office," Peterson, the idiotic secret service guy said.

"Shut up and take her to the restroom," Canton snapped.

"This way, ma'am," another one of the agents said, leading Amy away. Rory went to follow, but was soundly rebuffed by the Peterson-the-idiot.

"Your five minutes are up," Canton said, hoping to distract the Doctor from going back to his obviously heavily emotional conversation with his girl.

"Yeah, and where's my fez?"

...

The phone rang, and everyone in the office jumped. "The kid?" Canton asked.

"Should I answer it?" Nixon wanted to know.

"Here! The only place in the United States that call could be coming from. See? Obvious, when you think about it," the Doctor said triumphantly, fingering a spot on the map. Canton leaned over his shoulder.

"You, sir, are a genius," Canton admired.

"It's a hobby," the Doctor said.

"Mister President, answer the phone," Canton instructed.

"Hello. This is President Nixon."

"It's here! The spaceman's here! It's going to get me! It's going to eat me!"

"There's no time for a SWAT team. Let's go. Mister President, tell her help's on the way. Canton, on no account follow me into this box and close the door behind you," the Doctor said, leaping to his feet and seizing Rose's hand in his own, leading the way back into the TARDIS.

"What the hell are you doing?" Canton demanded, following them exactly as the Doctor intended him to do.

"Jefferson isn't a girl's name. It's not her name either. Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton. River?" The Doctor was saying, circling the console in his usual manic way, Rose's hand clutched tightly in his. She seemed happy to follow for now.

"Surnames of three of America's founding fathers," River supplied.

"Lovely fellows. Two of them fancied me."

"Yeah, and four more fancied me," Rose shot back. "_You _were jealous."

"I was not! I'm a Time Lord, I don't get jealous."

"Do the words 'hands off the blonde' ring any bells?" Jack singsonged. Unlike the Doctor, Rose, River and Amy, Jack and Rory had stayed by the entrance to comfort the very shocked and disturbed Canton.

"Are you okay? Coping?" Rory asked gently.

"You did not say that to him," Rose said.

"Okay, I didn't," the Doctor agreed cheerfully.

"Actually, I believe that he said that I'd wake up on the wrong side of the TARDIS airlock if I laid so much as a finger on you," Jack said.

"The TARDIS doesn't have an airlock," the Doctor protested weakly.

"You threatened to dump him out the TARDIS into space," Rose said flatly.

"And he threatened to chuck me into a black hole, too," Jack added helpfully. Canton, still stunned, gave another disturbed squeak.

"You see, the President asked the child two questions. Where are you and who are you? She was answering where," the Doctor said, clearly frantic to change the subject.

"You threatened to chuck him into a black hole," Rose said flatly.

"It's bigger on the inside," Canton said in astonishment.

"Yeah, you get used to it," Rory attempted to comfort him.

"Now, where would you find three big, historical names in a row like that?"

"Doctor! Black hole? Really?" Rose demanded hysterically.

"I—he was a fifty-first century con man, Rose, I was trying to keep you safe," the Doctor whined. "I wasn't jealous. Nuh-uh, not me. Time Lords don't get jealous. I was just worried—"

"That I would fall into bed with him because he's quite the charmer, or, in other news, _jealous_," Rose shot back.

"Fifty-first century con man?" Canton demanded, his tone going slightly high-pitched. "What does that even mean?"

"It _means_ that I was born in the fifty-first century, Canton," Jack said slowly. "And that, when I first encountered the Doctor, and Rose—she was dangling from a barrage balloon in the middle of the London Blitz, and I rescued her—I was a con man," Jack stated.

"Where? Doctor, where would we find three big, historical names in a row like that?" Amy prompted, trying to get them all back on track.

"Here. Come on."

"It's er," Canton stuttered.

"Are you taking care of this?" The Doctor said to Rory on his way by, Rose's hand in his. Rose seized Jack's hand in her other, and Jack reached back to grab River's because, what the hell, and River grabbed onto Amy's as they began to exit the TARDIS in a chain.

"Why is it always my turn?" Rory whined.

"Because you're the newest," Amy said, pressing her lips to his briefly before River pulled her out of the TARDIS.

"Where are we?" Amy asked, having emerged into an empty warehouse office. River released her hand, and Jack had released River's, but the Doctor, Rose and Jack were still connected in a little mini-chain.

"About five miles from Cape Kennedy Space Centre. It's 1969, the year of the moon. Interesting, don't you think?"

"But why would a little girl be here?"

"I don't know. Lost me a bit. The President asked the girl where she was, and she did what any lost little girl would do. She looked out of the window." He gestured out the window, where there was a signpole with three different street signs—Hamilton Avenue, Jefferson Street and Adams Street.

"Streets. Of course, street names," Amy said.

"The only place in Florida, probably all of America, with those three street names on the same junction," the Doctor said absently, before wandering off and dragging Rose and Jack with him.

Amy turned to River. "Do they always hold hands like that?"

"Eh," River said. "The Doctor really only holds her hand—they hold hands and run for their lives, it's sort of their thing. And Rose holds everyone's hand. Habit that she picked up from his previous incarnation, apparently he held everyone's hand. And she was married to him for years."

The TARDIS doors swung open again—clearly, Rory had finally managed to talk Canton out of the TARDIS.

"We've moved. How, how can we have moved?"Canton asked.

"You haven't even got to space travel yet?" The Doctor asked. Jack pulled free of Rose and moved closer to Canton.

"I was going to cover it with time travel," Rory said irritably.

"Time travel," Canton repeated. "When you said fifty-first century?"

"I was born there," Jack said. "Joined the Time Agency, split off and went to the Blitz in 1941. Met a girl, she introduced me to her Doctor." He gestured to Rose and the Doctor. "Then there was a fight. I got killed and they went off without me, and I used this—" he waved his Vortex Manipulator at Canton—"trying to get back to the twenty-first century. But it burnt out and left me stuck in 1869."

"Brave heart, Canton. Come on," the Doctor prompted.

"But that makes you over one hundred years old!"

"I'm immortal," Jack said flatly. "As is Rose. The Doctor regenerates instead of dying, and doesn't age."

"So we're in a box that's bigger on the inside, and it travels through time and space."

"Yeah, basically," Rory said.

"How long has Torchwood had this?"

"I'll tell you a little secret, Canton. We're not Torchwood. Well, Jack is. And Rose is Torchwood in another universe, but I doubt that it counts here, especially since she won't be born for another oh... eighteen years?"

"Who are you, then?"

"Canton, I'm the Doctor."


End file.
